Undying Love
by Black Gargie
Summary: This an AU fic. Raziel found himself in a Material World where humans are plentiful and the Spectral World is unshiftable. How would he ever go back and wht would happen when he actually had close encounters with a human?
1. The Weird World

A/N: I was a wee bit curious about this Soul Reaver character and got a little info about him from a close friend of mine. Anyway, curiosity doesn't always kill the cat, but it did give me some ideas. So, my dear Psycho Virus, enjoy! ;) 

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Raziel cowered in a small secluded corner of a squatter's area, thinking of what went wrong for the whole day. He remembered being chased by the Elder God's henchmen sent to get him to throw him back to the Lake of Death, and in haste, he shifted into the Material World. When he opened his eyes, he realized that he was in the middle of a big Material city with lights and loud music and lots and lots of people.

            Everyone passing by looked at him like he was a freak. Well, technically, in everyone's eyes, he was a freak: with a body built of either bones or muscles, his arms freakily wrapped up in brown, almost-tearing-apart bandages or some kind, his legs wearing rusty metal boots with his giant talon-like toes sticking out, his three abnormally large fingers—claws, to be exact—and his complexion, woah! He is bluer than any other people who had just been to the North Pole! What's more freaky is that he travels around with a cape that had seen better days and his eyes were a glowing set of yellow.

            Anyway, as I was saying, he was walking around the human-filled city like a total freak show. Some girls screamed at the sight of him and some teenagers looked at him and thought he was shooting a movie or some sort. Raziel was in total confusion. How did he get into this Material World? How did this happen? How _could_ this happen? In the Material World, humans are supposed to be extinct! They're not supposed to be around here! What was going on?

            So therefore, our vampire undead hero had to find some place secret and people-less to sort things out. He tried to contemplate the meaning of all this when Ariel appeared beside him.

            "You seemed troubled, Raziel."

            "What is this forsaken place? Why are there so many _humans_?!" Raziel snarled, spitting the last word like it was some kind of grotesque disease. 

            "I have come to a conclusion that you have fallen into the Material World of the past," Ariel looked around her. "It seems like we are now in the 21st century state of the Material World."

            "How have I come to end up in a place like this?" Raziel banged his fist onto a rusty trashcan. 

            "I have to assume that it is due to your haste in shifting to the Material World. I suppose you were too anxious to get out of the Elder God's henchmen and didn't have time to coordinate where you want to go."

            "I am not anxious about that Squid! I don't care about those henchmen! I was just…"

            Raziel's complaints were cut short by Ariel's sudden announcement, "I see a problem."  

            "What problem?" Raziel looked up at the ghostly figure of Ariel.

            "Try to shift back to the Spectral World."

            Raziel tried. He found out in horror that he couldn't shift back to the Spectral World, no matter how he tried. He gathered lots of strength and aura to shift himself into the Spectral World but to no avail. He slumped suddenly to the floor, panting like a dog.

            "This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening!"

            "It looks like there is no Spectral World in this dimension. Maybe there isn't a Spectral World to get into unless you find a doorway or a vortex through. It seems that you'll be here for quite some time," Ariel said before disappearing into thin air.

            The rain began to pour. Raziel could see all the humans, all those filthy little humans he wished he could sink his teeth into running around to find shelter. He was unlucky that there weren't any squatters around, or he would've sucked the soul out of them. He remained sitting at his spot near the trashcan glaring at all the humans, all those potential meals running about away from his fatal grasp.

            Finally, disregarding everything around him, he let out an angry, exasperated howl at the dark rainy sky above.

A/N: Oh dear, that reality didn't go very well on Raziel now, did it? Reviews plz! This is my first fic on the Soul Reaver. ^_^  


	2. The Aura

A/N: I didn't expect to have much as a review for my fic, but I'm flattered! Thanks, guys! Now on with the story! ^_^

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Raziel walked along the lonely night road, the rain falling mercilessly at his body. Not that he cared. He won't have a cold or pneumonia like the vulnerable humans around him. He's already an undead anyway.

            He tried to gather some strength to shift back to the Spectral World, but still no use. He didn't find himself anywhere near spectral. He growled in frustration and continued walking. If he didn't find a place that could access him a gateway to the Spectral World, he would definitely go mad, regardless his usual sarcastic ways and cold attitude.

            Suddenly he felt an aura in the midst. He swung round, trying to locate where the aura came from. Was it the aura of the gates to the Spectral World? Was it that the Elder God has sent his henchmen into this Material World? Was it the aura of Kain? Neither. It was something else. Something…

            "Human," Raziel's voice rumbled down behind the scarf across his face, his yellow eyes blazing dangerously murderous. It was a much more comforting sight than having to see him without a bottom jaw.

            He raced quickly towards the source of the aura. The rain was getting heavier. Thunder was crashing and lightning was flashing like hell, but he couldn't care less. Besides, why would he be worried about catching death? As he raced further and further down the bleak city, he found himself standing below a tall building—an apartment, to be exact—towering up the night sky. This building also had seen better days but it wasn't as wrecked as Raziel's cape. Somewhere in the building, the aura was getting stronger.

            "What kind of human would have such a strong aura?" Raziel thought as he spread his wings to fly up. "No ordinary human I have ever met has such strong aura."  

            Of course, as limited the strength as his wings were, he could only bring himself up to the 3rd floor. The rest of the way he went up by climbing the balcony stairs. The aura was getting pressingly strong the higher he went up. Finally at the 10th floor, he could feel the aura emitting itself strongly at his face. It came from one of the windows to his right. Raziel flew slowly towards that window and tried it. It wasn't locked, lucky for him. He opened it and crept in as silently as possible.

            There inside the room, he almost suffocated by the pressure of the aura hitting on him. It came from someone who was sleeping on the canopy bed. He walked towards the bed to see the owner of the aura and was surprised to see that it was a girl no older than 20. She had long flowing black hair that spread decoratively on the pillow. She wore a black turtleneck long-sleeved shirt and a pair of body-fitting black leather jeans. She looked like someone who just came home from a joyride. It seemed that she was so tired she didn't bother to change.

            'Who is this woman?' Raziel thought. 'How would a normal human like her have such a strong aura? What kind of human is she?'

            When he held out his hand to touch her cheek, an electrical force suddenly engulfed the sleeping girl, forcing Raziel to back away. Raziel gasped silently as he held his three-fingered hand that was popping with static electricity.

            'What the hell…? She's no ordinary human! She's a hybrid! Her soul is perfect! I must have it!'

            Raziel materialized his silver sword and held it high above the girl, ready to strike. He aimed the sword dangerously at her throat and was about to embed it swift and quick when all of a sudden, he couldn't do it. It was nothing to do with her protective shield—she didn't do anything; she just remained sleeping peacefully. It was also nothing to do with the fear of destroying himself after sucking her soul—he had sucked stronger souls than this and still lived through the day, like Zethon's soul, for example. It was looking at her face that stopped him. Her face was so serene and calm, like she didn't have any care of the world. It was as if she wanted him to kill her. This didn't feel right. Usually when he was about to kill humans and suck the souls out of them, they would cower with fear and begging for their lives not to be killed. This totally didn't feel right.

            Again he raised his sword, higher this time and sent it swiftly down. He wanted to do this quick and silent and have her potential soul inside him as soon as possible but he stopped abruptly. The tip of the spiky sword was pinned on her throat just right, but he didn't stab her through. Her chest was still rising and falling, indicating she was still asleep—and alive.

            He couldn't do it. He couldn't figure it out. So what if this human doesn't beg for mercy? It'll still be the same. He would get her soul all the same. But he couldn't do it. He just couldn't. Something was still not right. Somehow everything seemed way too simple. He wanted to kill her there and then but he couldn't. It just didn't feel right. He sighed and took the sword away from her throat and ran his fingers through his bluish-black hair. He will come back for her. Someday he will have her soul, one way or another.

            He dematerialized his sword and stepped back from the bed. He hissed, "You're lucky this time."  

           As he crept back to the window and climbed out into the rainy open, he made a vow to find out who this girl really is.

A/N: Wow! It's not always you can see Raziel  having any compassion for humans. Reviews plz! ^_^


	3. The Girl

A/N: Now let's get on with the story on our resident evil Soul Reaver. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Raziel sat on the balcony stairs all night until the sun rose at the east. He was quite grateful that he was sun-tolerant, or he would've turned into dust straightaway. He heard the girl with the strong aura awoke from her sleep by the ringing of her alarm clock. He looked in and saw the girl walking groggily towards another room. He sat there and watched. He really wanted to know what this girl was doing.

            A few minutes later, she walked out of the room fully dressed in a black long-sleeved dress. She had a 'Peace' pendant hanging around her neck made out of fake silver. She gathered her books and walked out to the front door.

            Raziel climbed down the stairs in a jiffy and waited behind the wall of the apartment. He saw her walking out of the building and towards the bus stop which was a few feet away from the building. Raziel decided to follow her. He grabbed a very old and very torn robe from somewhere near the big trash bin and wore it in haste. He grabbed the rear of the bus and had his feet on the bumper of the bus, ignoring the surprised look of passers-by. The bus took him to a tall building that said 'Yonderland High'. He saw the girl got off the bus and he followed suite.

            He waited outside the gates of the building until every human around the area has entered the building before passing through the gates with ease and flew up to the tallest, densest tree available. He saw the girl at one of the windows, sitting among a whole bunch of humans listening to a man teaching in front of the room. He realized that this was a school. He continued sitting up at the tree, watching and waiting, not wanting to lose sight of the girl.

            Finally, in the afternoon, school time was over. The humans all rushed out of the building to do their own stuff. Raziel saw the girl walking swiftly towards the bus stop to catch the next bus. He got off the tree and followed suite. Again, he grabbed the rear of the bus and let it take him to where it might take him. When he saw the girl got off the bus, he didn't think twice.

            That was when he realized that he was in the big city, filled with humans here and there. All those potential souls around him. It was like being taken into a land where food was abundant. But the girl was still his first priority. He wanted her soul no matter what—she could be beneficial to his existence. He followed her all the way down to a…playground?

            She sat on a swing as if waiting for somebody. Her darkly dressed attire made her look mysterious and sleek among the people in the playground. Everyone cowered away when they saw her, as if they, too, felt her aura.

            "Melissa! Melissa Celestial!"

            The girl turned around to face the person who called her. Raziel began to comprehend.

            "So," Raziel said under his breath, "her name is Melissa Celestial. Interesting."         

            "What are they doing here? I told you I don't like too much exposure," the girl whose name was Melissa grumbled. Her voice had a lot of spunk, like she had been around the big world long enough to make herself street-smart.

            "Sorry, Melissa, but they didn't believe me when I said I passed my test with your help. I hate being called a liar for nothing!" A girl no older than 12 years old complained. Behind her was her gang of friends consisting of another girl and 3 boys.

            "Alright, alright. It'll earn me more bucks anyway. So what are your questions for today?" Melissa waved away her complaint and got right into business.

            "I wanna know about tomorrow's science test!" the girl announced quickly.

            "I wanna know if my crush Lavender has the hicks on me!"

            "I wanna know about today's weather, 'coz I got a football game later."

            "I want to know if Patricia is still angry with me."

            "And I wanna know when our Social Studies teacher is going to ask the Home Science teacher to marry him!"

            "Oh yeah, that's a good question!" the rest of the gang agreed.

            "OK," Melissa said as she took 5 chalk-like pens. She opened the covers of each pens and out came 5 little fox elves no bigger than her own palms. It was obvious that only Raziel and she could see those elves, judging by the confused looks on the children's faces. She explained to the children about the fox elves and their ability to see things normal people don't see.

            "I'm using these fox elves because they see things like what people are thinking, pass through walls, flying higher than a Concorde and other things. I know you can't see them, because it takes a person like me to be able to see them. Go, my pets, seek for the answers these poor souls need."

            Raziel saw the fox elves flying out of her hands and out into the street. One of the fox elves passed by Raziel and it shrieked like a frightened puppy before rushing away to do its job. Raziel decided to follow it to see what it was doing. The fox elf led him to a girl with ebony-black hair and the purplest eyes you've ever seen. It actually flew through her body without as much as making the girl flinch. It was as if it didn't really exist at all. Moments later, Raziel saw the fox elves gather together at one spot before returning to the playground. 

            One by one they approached Melissa and told her the answer. She took out a notepad and scribbled something before handing it to the girl who asked about the test.

            "Here you go. You're lucky it's a multiple choice question kind of test. These are all the answers."

            "Thank you so much, Melissa!" the girl grinned in delight.

            "You're in luck, boy," Melissa turned to her second customer. "That Lavender you were talking about, well, she definitely has the hicks on you. She wished that you would ask her to go for that latest horror movie 'Revolution'."

            "Her wish is my command!" the boy jumped with glee, blushing like heck.

            "It's gonna be rainy today, boy, so I guess you should cancel your football plans for today."

            "Oh, man! That is so not good!" her third customer groaned. 

            "Patricia is not angry with you anymore, girl," Melissa turned to her fourth customer. "She thinks that maybe you were just joking about her grades after all."

            "Thank God she understands!" the girl sighed in relief. "I keep forgetting that she's very sensitive about her grades."

            "And you, little boy, your answer won't be so satisfying. Mr. Norbert is still contemplating whether to propose to Ms. Rita. He even thinks that maybe it's not worth it because she might have a boyfriend of her own."

            "Oh man! Mr. Norbert thinks too much!" the children groaned. "We gotta give him a piece of our mind tomorrow!"

            "Alright, people, pay up! 10 bucks for each request!" Melissa brought them back to reality. The kids complained about it being too expensive but they paid it in the end, thanking her before they left. As the day went by, there came more and more customers of all ages young and old. Again the fox elves spread themselves finding the answers for their mistress and whispering them to her. They were actually doing all the dirty work for her. By the end of the day, her money jar was pretty much full. 

            Then something unthinkable happened. When the mystical Melissa got off the swing and patted herself off the dust, she looked towards the wall where Raziel was hiding and said, "Alright, you vampire. There's no use hiding. I know you're behind there. State your business."

            Raziel didn't expect her to know that he was there watching her. Could it be that the fox elf that saw him had told her? It could be. Anything's possible now.

            Soon Raziel found himself standing face to face with aura-filled Melissa Celestial.

A/N: Oh my! What would happen next? 0_0 Stay tuned to find out! Reviews plz!


	4. The Encounter

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews, guys. I appreciate it. But as I always say, I am a person with a mind of my own, so I'm still going to do the fic MY way. Just enjoy da show!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            "State your business, vampire. Are you here to suck my blood or something?"

            Raziel was quite impressed at how spunky and down-to-earth this girl was. She didn't even flinch when he proceed to walk nearer to her. He stopped in his track when he had a whiff of her aura. So strong, so powerful, so…deliciously tempting.

            "Who are you?" Raziel asked. "Why do you have such a strong aura in you? What kind of human are you?"

            "Unfortunately, I do not consider myself a human," Melissa flung her long dark hair with flourish. "I consider myself as a being. Those people who come asking for my help are humans. I'm not as degraded as they are."

            "Your aura is very strong. Almost as strong as the beings of Nozgoth, but much lower. Who are you?"

            "If you must know, vampire, my name is Melissa Celestial, your resident witch from the East," Melissa said with an air of pride in her.

            "A witch?" Raziel was surprised.

            "Yup, a witch, and the most powerful at that," Melissa replied as she sat back on the swing. "I'm the odd one out of all my family of witches. I'm the strongest and the most powerful among my siblings and relatives. It's very rare in my family to see a witch that has powers exceeding all records of life."

            "I can see that. You say that your family is a whole bunch of witches," Raziel sat on the base of the merry-go-round.

            "That's right, including my father. In my family, even men are considered witches. They are all in the East, training and meditating their whole life through."

            "Then why are you not training like the rest of them?" Raziel asked, his hand behind his back, materializing the silver sword.

            "Because I hate that kind of life!" Melissa snapped. "Just because I have powers stronger than everyone else, doesn't mean they can deprive me of my freedom and keep me in the house training and meditating where there is a big world out there for me to explore! So I ran away from home, taking a few things with me and came here to the Big Apple."

            "You mean those little fox elves?" Raziel said, pointing at the chalk-like pens in her purse.

            "Yup, totally. Aren't they cool? Fox elves have been in my family for generations now, and I've learnt a long time ago on how to control them. I wanna be the greatest witch in the world and earn big bucks, ya know."

            "All the reason why you should just stay back at the East to train," Raziel got up, his sword ready to cast its first blow.

            "Forget it! I'm not going to waste my life there like my family did for generations! For this generation," Melissa pointed to herself proudly, "I'm making my own life and my own rules! Who are you anyway? Are you one of my family's new slave or something, sent here to bring me home?"

            "Unfortunately, I'm no one's slave," Raziel sneered as he revealed his silver sword. "You should've stayed home, because I am here to take your soul!" 

            Raziel charged towards Melissa with splitting speed. He didn't think that she would be able to keep away from his incoming. He raised his gleaming sword high above his head and brought it down towards Melissa's vulnerable skull. Surprisingly, Melissa didn't even as much flinch. She just sat there without even a small expression on her face while he brought his sword closer and closer towards her skull, slashing her beautiful head into half.

            Suddenly, the same force field he saw when he first met this girl engulfed her body. It countered Raziel's sword and bounced it away from his hand and onto the earth, slashing the tip of a bush in the process. Raziel was taken aback for a second there but he decided to end her life with his own hands. Again, he was bounced back by the force field and was sent flying towards the wall. His whole body popped with static as he tried to get up. He did the same thing again and again, and yet his every attempt resulted to serious playground damage.

            "Looks like I have to find a new place to do my business," Melissa sighed nonchalantly as the force field subsided. She picked up her stuff and got off the swing as if none of this had ever happened. Raziel growled as he got up painfully to charge at her with the sword but was stopped in his tracks by Melissa's warning, "I wouldn't do that again if I were you."

            "Why?! Why can't I get close to you?! That's impossible for a human to have this kind of power!!"

            "I told you, I'm no degraded human. I am a being. An ultimate being. A witch," Melissa smirked as she turned around to face the Soul Reaver. "By the way, FYI, I've developed this force field at birth. All of us witches have this kind of protection, but my family only developed it after long training and meditation."

            She cat-walked boldly towards Raziel, who fell on his knees in fatigue over his countless attempts to kill her, and pushed his forehead lightly with a scorn in her voice, "Told you I am powerful."

            He growled and reached out to grab her when he had the chance, only to be thrown away again by her force field. He had learnt the hard way that her force field was very sensitive to sudden movements that might threaten Melissa's life. He watched painfully and grudgingly as she walked away from him with an air of pride in her steps.

            "I'm going to get you!! Your soul is mine!!" Raziel snarled before she disappeared out of sight. Melissa waved him away like he was some kind of insignificant piece of shit. He slowly got up and picked up his sword. He angrily stabbed the sword onto the ground, venting out his anger at such defeat before dematerializing it back into his hand.

            As the sun began to set and the night closed in, he tore off the old ragged robe he had on him for the whole day and walked towards the direction Melissa went, tracking down her aura.

            His vow just became stronger.

A/N: My, my! Has Raziel met his match? Stay tuned to find out! Reviews plz! 


	5. The Saving

A/N: Thanks a lot for all your reviews and support. Now let's continue with the story.

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            The moon was high in the sky. Raziel felt more secure during the night (don't all vampires feel that way?). Again he waited at Melissa's apartment and watched intently. He had to know more about this girl. He had to find out some kind of weakness that he can penetrate through so that he won't get electrified and bounced back at every time he tried to kill her.

            Soon, he saw her coming out of her apartment. She was dressed in the same black turtleneck and black leather jeans. She was wearing a pair of hob-nailed boots and was carrying a small blackish-grey purse. She even had a black leather jacket over her. Everything on her was dark and black, making even more mysterious among the normal humans around her. She seemed pretty gothic too. She stood there outside the apartment door, as if waiting for someone.

            A few moments later, a huge exotic Harley Davidson approached the apartment. The driver waved at Melissa, beckoning her to hop on the bike. Behind the Harley tailed a long hoard of bikes. Most of the bikes were Suzuki or Kimisawa brand but they were pretty much modified, and the noise that blared from the engines was loud enough to be heard a mile away. Raziel was surprised to see this spunky girl having such wild hoard of humans as friends. Melissa laughed gingerly and rode on the Harley. The gang of bikes drove off, the engines blaring like mad.    

            Raziel followed suite. He jumped from one rear of the car to another to catch up with the bikes and he had to make sure that the vehicle he hitchhiked was going at the same route. When he saw them stopping at a vast beach, he got off the lorry of strong-smelling fish he hitchhiked and followed quietly towards the direction of their stop point.

            As he stayed hidden behind a palm tree, he saw the gang of people singing and dancing, practically enjoying themselves. Their music was blaring out screaming rock songs like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Evanessence, Eminem and even Marilyn Manson. They danced around their bonfire and drank cans and cans of beer, making loads of rackets. They didn't give a hoot about littering the place with potato chip bags, beer cans, plastic bags and the like.

            'How can these humans stand this type of music?' Raziel thought. 'How could Melissa tolerate these types of people?'

            Melissa was then seen walking away with a guy who fitted the criteria of the driver of the Harley. He was quite well-built, with long flaming red hair that reached his shoulders and a pair of bright blue eyes. He seemed like a person who just came out of reform school. Raziel wasn't the least bit impressed about the boy's looks. He was being quite close and mushy towards Melissa. He laid his lips on the girl's and kissed her deeply. Melissa returned his kiss. Raziel grimaced. He hated mushy stuff.

            He was about to turn away when he heard Melissa struggling away from the boy. The boy clearly had 'uneventful' intentions towards the girl Raziel had high hopes of killing and sucking the soul from. He started to touch her everywhere and was caressing naughtily at her breasts. Melissa tried to push her away but he was much stronger. Raziel realized that her force field she boasted about was only useful to beings like him. Humans like that sexual-minded boy has no effect in activating the force field.

            Raziel saw everything that was happening and was thinking of leaving her alone. So what if she gets raped or sexually assaulted? That's not his problem. His job was to kill her and suck her soul. 'Serves her right to be robbed of her innocence by some no good reform boy,' he thought. 'That'll teach her to mess around with me.' So saying, he turned and left the scene.

            When Melissa's call became even more frantic, Raziel couldn't help stopping in his tracks. 'What am I doing?' he thought in horror. 'I'm not supposed to have any compassion for this human. I only have to find a way to kill her and take her soul away to be mine! What's happening to me? Why do I…'

            Before he knew it, his feet were guiding him towards the struggling Melissa. Melissa tried to pry and push the boy away who was definitely into no good.

            "Get away from me, you creep!" Melissa yelled, wanting to just kick the boy's dick but he was quite prepared for that.

            "No one gonna hear you here. We are way out of earshot," the boy grinned victoriously. "Besides, they won't even care anyway. To them, we are officially a pair."

            "I wouldn't say that you are way out of earshot," Raziel came from behind the boy and grabbed his throat. He carried the boy high above his head, letting him choke and kick in the mid-air. Finally, with just one squeeze, he broke the boy's neck in two with a loud crunch (Ouch!) and dropped him like he was merely nothing more than a piece of carcass. He pulled down his scarf, revealing his somewhat jawless mouth and, for his and Melissa's eyes only, sucked the boy's glowing soul that was floating out of his body. It all happened quite fast and quite soundlessly, that Melissa took a few seconds to realize that she was actually standing in front of the vampire.

            "You…didn't have to kill him…" Melissa finally found her voice.

            "I was just hungry," Raziel replied coldly as he covered his mouth again with his scarf. Like I said, a scarf across his face was much better than staring at his scary face without a bottom jaw.

            "He's my driver, you bone-head! He's the only person willing to send me home! No one else would!"

            "What about your companions out there at the sandy land?" Raziel jerked his head towards the direction of the beach.

            "They wouldn't dare to touch me!" Melissa waved her hands dramatically. "They confirmed us a couple! You don't know how big his influence has on them. If they find out that you actually killed him…"

            "You are a very peculiar girl. Not only you have an aura that I am yet to penetrate, you also have an unreasonable behaviour," Raziel folded his arms across his chest. "I have just rescued you from a possibility of losing your innocence and you…"

            "Aha!" Melissa said suddenly, pointing at our resident evil vampire with a scornful look on her face. "You do admit that you were trying to rescue me!"

            Raziel felt like biting his tongue, except that he hadn't many teeth—no lower jaw, for the matter of fact—to do so. When he about to argue his reasons for his acts, Melissa's cell phone rang. Melissa hurried to pick it up from her pocket.

            "Hello? Yeah, it's me…Uh-huh…What? Are you sure? Hang in there. Just stay there and don't move. I'll be right there, OK? Just stay put!"

            As Melissa hung up her cell phone, Raziel eyed at the little thing curiously, "What is this contraption you're using? Why are you talking to yourself with this?"

            "I don't have time for your petty questions!" Melissa huffed irritably. "I got some business to take care of."

            So saying, Melissa dashed away from the place without even looking back or even saying goodbye to her friends at the beach who were still rocking their heads out. She ran until she reached a road and halted a taxi.

            For once, Raziel actually followed her right into the taxi and sat beside her. Literally. Melissa's mind was too occupied to bother about his existence and his persistence to follow. She had her force field to keep Raziel a well distance away from her if he had any bright ideas.

            "To Firefox Street, please, and hurry."

A/N: What emergency has Melissa have in her hand? Read to find out!


	6. The Hybrid

A/N: There has been pretty lot of flames going on, but I will say this: I am a person of free will! There, I said it. Now let's enjoy the show!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Within moments, Melissa and Raziel reached Firefox Street. Melissa tossed a few money papers to the driver and said, "Keep the change. You, vampire, move out of the way! I wanna get off! Or do you want me to _force_ you out?"

            Raziel knew exactly what she meant. As exasperated as he was, he had to follow Melissa's orders. He felt so incompetent and degraded being ordered around by a human whose race he had consumed for the past goodness-knows-how-many years. Melissa made a dash into the building they stopped in front of. Raziel looked up and noticed that it was another apartment but more exclusive-looking. It looked like a mini-condominium, to be exact. Raziel followed suite, running behind Melissa who was climbing the stairs 3 steps at a time.

            She stopped in front of a door marked 'R100' and knocked on it furiously. Raziel heard tiny pitter-pattering of footsteps from behind the door and a frantic turn of the doorknob. A little boy revealed himself from behind the door looking very scared indeed. Melissa came in the room and was shocked at the mess created, as if a tornado just moved in. The whole place was practically a ramshackle: the sofas were overturned, the tables were smashed, the curtains were shredded terribly, the TV began to look like it really had seen better days and the worst of all was that the window was broken, as in including the missing window rims. 

            "Tiger, where's your sister?" Melissa asked the cowering little boy who was no older than 6 years old.

            "She went crazy," Tiger said timidly. "She broke everything. She flew out of the window…"

            "Shit," Melissa cursed as she carried Tiger back to his bedroom. At least his room was safe from damage. She laid him on bed and said, "You stay here and go to sleep. Don't let anyone come in until the next morning, OK? Promise me that."

            Tiger nodded and pulled the covers over his head. Melissa walked quickly out of the boy's room and out of the apartment room. She did everything in silence and Raziel didn't bother to ask. Finally, when they were out in the streets, Raziel's curiosity got the better of him.

            "What just happened? Why did the boy look so terrified? What happened to the place?"

            "Shh! I'm trying to concentrate," Melissa hushed him as she took out a pendulum. It was made out of shiny crystal the colour of the sunset sky. It sparkled under the streetlights, glittering like a very rare jewel plucked from the crown of Queen Elizabeth. She closed her eyes and held the pendant right in front of her forehead and seemed to concentrate greatly. Raziel could feel her aura building up. He retreated—he didn't want himself to be sent flying to another hard-core wall by her force.

            A few moments later, she opened her eyes abruptly and said, "I've found her."

            "Who have you found?" Raziel asked in surprise.  

            Melissa didn't answer, but went on her way. Raziel followed suite. He was getting really irritated by Melissa's attitude of keeping people in the dark. They went down a long way, turning right and left and straight ahead again throughout the journey. Finally, they reached an abandoned building site. It seemed as if it was really for a very, very long while, judging by the way the whole place was filled with rusted bars and molded wood planks. Rubbish was abundant and sawdust was more than you can imagine. The wrecked building itself was a halfway done job. It was really pathetic the way people just give up on a project that could win them millions in cold hard cash.

            Melissa used her pendulum to search around the place, and wherever the pendulum shone and pointed, she followed that direction. Raziel tagged along. He could feel another aura in the abandoned site besides Melissa's aura. It was strong—almost like of Melissa's kind, yet it was more bestial than human. The pendulum took her to a run-down warehouse. It stank of mould and fungi, but Raziel and Melissa was too engrossed in their search to bother about the smell.

            "Jude? Judith, are you in there? It's me, Melissa," Melissa called out. The roof was beginning to crumple, like the whole warehouse was going to fall in one false move.

            "Who is this…?" Raziel was about to ask but Melissa hushed him.

            "Not a word until she's out. You don't want to alert her, believe me," Melissa whispered to him, then turned around and raised her voice, "Judith, come on out. It's me, Melissa, your friend. Don't be afraid."

            Slowly, the person she was calling came into view. She was quite tall, with wild ebony-black hair. She was very dark, like she had been sun-kissed by the sun for too long. Her eyes were the purplest colour you have ever seen. She was barely clothed—her clothes were torn beyond recognition. She had a pair of giant bat-like wings almost like Raziel's but much larger and much stronger than his spindly ones. Raziel recognized her quite immediately.

            "You…"

            "You know her?" Melissa asked as she draped her jacket over her.

            "She's the girl I saw one of your fox elves went through. I recognize her purple eyes."

            "Let's talk outside. I don't want to be caught dead crushed by pounds upon pounds of rubble."

            As they went outside, Melissa sat the girl whose name was Judith on one of the wooden planks. Judith looked really savage indeed, like one move and she'll tear you into shreds. But her eyes were kind, scared and timid, like she was a little mouse trapped in a lion's body. Raziel tentatively took her chin and scrutinized her. Judith cowered at the sight of him. His haunting yellow eyes were enough to tell who he was.

            "Melissa, what's this vampire doing here?"

            "He's…sort of an unofficial friend of mine," Melissa replied, remembering the first time they met and the incident before at the beach. 

            "She's a hybrid like you, isn't she?" Raziel asked, letting Judith's chin go. "She's a half-succubus." 

            "Yes, unfortunately. It's not a very good reality for her," Melissa replied. "She wasn't born from a marriage at all. Her father, an incubus, flew into her mother's room one night and raped her. She's the seed of which became both her gift and her burden."

            "What about her brother?" Raziel asked.

            "Tiger is human all the way," Judith replied hurriedly. "I didn't mean to scare him, but I just can't control myself. I haven't quite got the hang of my anger management. My mother died after he was born and I had to look after him."

            "Where is the man of the house? If Tiger is human, then his father should be around."

            "When my mother was pregnant with Tiger, my father found out about my identity. He must've heard it from a certain someone who couldn't keep his mouth shut. He divorced my mother immediately and left us with nothing. I have taken care of that tattletale once and for all."

            Raziel knew exactly what this half-succubus meant by 'taking care of' meant. He folded his arms across his chest and asked, "Then what's with the destruction of your house? You have something against your brother?"

            "No, not that! I love Tiger very much! It's just that…" Judith was hesitant to say. Her dark cheeks became quite pink. 

            "She's trying to control herself from creating havoc like she did in the past," Melissa helped her to speak. "She doesn't want to go killing again like before if she were to actually live like a real human."

            "Havoc?" Raziel asked, curious.

            "I've killed a lot of people," Judith replied timidly. "I cannot deny or ignore my ancestral instincts. Succubus and incubus have to…"

            "Travel around at night to suck energy from their victims during their sleep, I've heard about that. Almost like vampires," Raziel finished off her words. "So I assume that you have been around the street a lot and have sucked enough energy from people to cover up the whole city."

            Judith nodded. "I've killed too much. Tiger and I have been moving a lot. There are certain people who are hot on our heels and we have to get them off our backs."

            "What certain people?"

            "Vampire-hunters, cult-killers, witch-hunters, you name it," Melissa replied. "Those people would stop at nothing to destroy us. She's not the only one being hunted down. I'm also a fugitive of these people. Now that you've killed my Harley driver, soon they'll be hot on your heels too."

            "Why don't you just kill them off? Isn't it just easy to just finish them off and rid them of their existence?" Raziel asked.

            "I can't do that," Judith replied sadly. "They're like white hair; you pluck out one and 5 will grow in its place. Even if I destroy those who are after me, I will have to face a lot more in the future."

            "A bunch of blood-sucking fleas they are!" Melissa said with a huff. "The more you kill them, the more they multiply."

            Their situation reminded them about his days as Sarafan and the first time he became a vampire.

            "I want to control myself. I don't want to kill anymore. I'm doing this for a…a guy I like," Judith said sheepishly.

            "Jude! You don't have to tell this vampire everything!" Melissa scowled, annoyed at how straightforward her friend can be at times.

            "Well, he's your friend and he's somewhat of our kind, so what's the big deal?" Judith turned to her best friend with a surprised look on her face. Melissa rolled her eyes and waved her hands sarcastically.

            "This boy…Does he so happens to call you…Lavender?"

            "How did you know?" Judith was surprised. "That's my human name when I'm around my friends! You didn't tell him, did you, Melissa?"

            "No, I did not! He so happens to follow me around all day and all night like some stalker, so how would I know that he maybe eavesdropping over certain things?!"

            "Actually, half of it is because I guess that the name matched her purple eyes," Raziel pointed at Judith's eyes.

            "Oh," Melissa replied.

            Judith twiddled her thumbs sheepishly. "Yes, that's him. His name is Kent Kristian. I am so attracted to him, that I have made a decision to quit energy-sucking altogether. I've decided to live like a normal human being, but unfortunately, I couldn't control my appetite. Every night was an agony for me. I had to fight the demons inside me. It worked painfully a few times and Melissa has been helping me out, but recently it got worse. There are times when I had to ask Tiger to tie me up. And now…you get the picture."

            "Do any of your friends know about this condition of yours?" Raziel asked, scrutinizing her wings and was quite amazed at its well-built structure.

            "If they knew, they wouldn't be her friends anymore!" Melissa groaned.

            "There is not much of a cure for this, unfortunately," Raziel replied. "Don't fight your instincts; embrace it. It'll do you a lot good that way."

            "Haven't you been listening? She is willing to give that up for her boyfriend!" Melissa yelled at him exasperatedly. "She's not going to go around sucking people's energy anymore! She wants to live normally just like anyone else, just like a human! Unlike you, she's nowhere cold-blooded and heartless as you are, sucking souls whenever you feel like it!"

            "That is only half of what she is now," Raziel replied coldly. "If she actually gets the man she deserved, what are the chances of her able to resist the boy's energy? You have seen how rambunctious she turned out to be when she gets all starved up. How can you guarantee that she would not be able to control her instincts and suck the boy's soul?"

            Melissa and Judith were at lost of words. They hate to admit it, but the vampire was right. What are the chances of this half-succubus of resisting temptation and denying her ancestral instincts? From the condition of the apartment, Judith was in a state where she cannot be able to control her hunger anymore. Another day like this and sooner or later, she would end up killing her own brother.

            "So what are you suggesting, Mr. Know-It-All Vampire? What do you think she should do?" Melissa had her hands on her waist.

            "You humans always claim that you are the brightest among all species. Enlighten me then," Raziel replied coolly, looking away as if none of their problems are of his concern.

            "I guess there's only one thing to do," Judith said with a heavy sigh.

            "What is it?" Melissa asked.

            "I'll just have to tell all my friends the truth about myself and follow what the vampire says: embrace my ancestral instincts and satisfy my hunger."

            "No! You can't do that!! It's already hard for you to survive the human world and have great friends! You can't just throw it all away by some stupid _vampire's_ comment!" Melissa exclaimed in horror, glaring accusingly at Raziel.

            "I did not suggest anything," Raziel said nonchalantly.

            "Jude! You can't just give up everything up just like that! You have a choice to live the life you want!" Melissa practically pleaded Judith who was beginning to take flight. "Are you really going to let Kent go?"

            "If I can't even control my killing instincts, then I don't deserve Kent," Judith replied as she flew away into the night sky towards the direction of her home at Firefox Street. Melissa didn't have time to stop her. She turned abruptly towards Raziel and scowled.

            "It's all your fault, you miserable vampire! You've ruined her life!"

            "I didn't suggest anything. She decided that herself," Raziel said.

            "You instilled all that stupid ideas about embracing her instincts and all! You are the worst, most terrible vampire in the whole world, you…you…"

            "Raziel. I believe I haven't introduced myself. My name is Raziel."

            "I don't care about what the heck your name is!" Melissa slapped Raziel's shoulder hastily, then she turned around and looked up at the moon lit sky and whispered, "I hope she's OK."

A/N: My, my! Is this the beginning of a 'beautiful' friendship between a vampire and two human hybrids or the beginning of a terrible foe-dom between a witch and a Soul Reaver? Reviews plz!


	7. The Transformation

A/N: Now that everything's being quite acquainted for, let's get on with the show!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Raziel followed Melissa again to school the next morning. He was still bent on finding out what are her weaknesses and how to penetrate that force field of hers. He had to get her soul no matter what. Her aura was so powerful—she may be the key to his return to the Spectral World.

            The whole day went by as usual: sitting in class, listening to some boring lectures, eating in the cafeteria and back to class again. Raziel, who was staring at Melissa from his usual spot up on the tree, was beginning to go a little bit hungry when he saw her eating away at the cafeteria. He half-wished that he could get a soul right now to replenish himself—it's been a while since he last sucked a soul. 

            "Hey, you! What are you doing up there?!"

            Raziel looked down from his tree and saw an old man in overalls. It was the school janitor. He was wearing a pair of thick glasses, so it was obvious that his eyesight was bad enough to mistake Raziel for a student.

            "You get down here, boy, and go back to class before I report you to the Principal's office!" 

            Raziel jumped down from his tree directly in front of the janitor and pulled his collar. He clasped his mouth shut, drowning his cries and dragged him behind the tree out of sight, just in case someone's watching. Then he twisted the old man's neck, breaking it and removed his scarf. As soon as he saw the old man's soul floating out of his chest, he sucked it into his mouth and down his gut, and it all happened within a couple of minutes. He threw the old man away and moved quickly to another tree that has a good view of Melissa and sat there, continuing his watch over her.

            As soon as school's over, Raziel got off the tree and waited at the gates for Melissa. As expected, there was an uproar in the school as the body of the old janitor was found under the tree. Melissa joined the crowd to see what the commotion was about until she felt traces of Raziel's aura around the old man. She sighed and walked out of the gates, passing Raziel by.

            "I assume that was your doing," Melissa walked on without turning back to look at Raziel.

            "He found me. I had to get rid of him. Besides, I was just hungry," Raziel replied as if it was nothing big about it.

            "If there are a million beings like you in this god forsaken world, I bet you'll eat up the entire population of humans."

            "Maybe, maybe not," Raziel said. "Where are you going?"

            "To check out on Judith and see if anything wrong turns out or something. I don't care if you are coming or not, just stay the hell away from me, as in nowhere near a meter from me."

            Raziel didn't know what 'a meter' meant, but he sure didn't want to risk his life being electrocuted by her force field. He followed her from behind until they reached a school called 'Joie De Vivre Elementary School'. They tried to act casual as they stepped into the school. Unfortunately, Raziel's neither-bone-nor-muscle body with weird attire didn't do much to make him look anywhere normal. Raziel didn't care; he couldn't find another robe like the other day, so he just had to do without.

            "You are embarrassing me, Raziel!" Melissa hissed as she took off her long, flowing leather coat and passed it to the vampire. "Wear this before someone mistakes you for someone who just came out of the land of famine and takes you to a lab or someplace."

            Careful not to directly touch her, Raziel took the coat and put it on. He could sense Judith's bestial aura among the dozens upon dozens of primary school students. Melissa felt it too, and she tracked it down until it took her to the recreational centre behind the school. They saw Judith (whose identity now among the humans is Lavender) among the kids who just came to Melissa to ask for predictions.

            "If you are going to be curious about someone besides me, you ought to know her friends too," Melissa said as she pointed from one kid to another, introducing them. "That one with short blondish-brown hair is Medusa, always asking for test scores. That one who looks very sporty and with pure blonde hair is Hanson, a total football freak. That brunette with two pony-tails on her head is Karen and that shorty over there is Mickey. Hasn't got a growth spurt in years, but he will…soon. Oh, and that one with very dark-brown hair and a cap on his head, that's her crush Kent Kristian."

            "We are too far away from them. How are we going to hear what are they talking?" Raziel asked.

            "This calls for a little help from my spy-kit. Being a witch doesn't mean I should be away from modern civilization, you know."  

            Melissa took out a bug and a speaker from her bag. She used rubber band and shot the bug, letting it hit on the merry-go-round Judith was sitting on. Then she tested the speaker until she can finally get a frequency to hear their words. This was what the amazed Raziel (at the technology) and Melissa heard:

            _JUDE: Guys, there's something I need to tell you._

_            MEDUSA: No problem, Lavender. Just spit it out._

_            JUDE: I…uh…I'm not exactly who you think I am._

_            HANSON: Of course you're not; you're a special girl. You're one in a million!_

_            KAREN: Yeah, no doubt about it. You're the sweetest, nicest girl we've ever met._

_KENT__: And also the prettiest gal ever._

_            MICKEY: If it weren't for your information, Mr. Norbert would've proposed to Ms. Rita and broke someone's                                           heart._

_            MEDUSA: Yeah. Who would've guessed that his college mate would have a crush on him all along and yet he didn't even acknowledge it! That is one dumb Romeo if I ever saw one!_

_            HANSON: And thanks to Lavender, Mr. Norbert and that college mate Yolanda are going to get married this autumn! This is so cool!_

_            JUDE: Really, guys. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not even entirely human._

_KENT__: What do you mean not entirely human? You're perfectly human to me, except those lovely purple eyes, that is. They really do look extraordinary though._

_            JUDE: I am really a half-succubus. I'm not entirely human. I may not even be human any longer._

_            HANSON: What do you mean? We don't get it, Lavender. Why would you say that you are not human?_

_            JUDE: My name isn't Lavender either. It's Judith. You'll see what I mean once the sun sets._

            Melissa looked at her watch. It was almost sundown. She thought of the horror if those kids ever see her true form. She wanted to rush out to stop her from doing the unimaginable but Raziel's warning voice stopped her in her tracks.

            "This is her choice. Don't make this hard on her."

            As the sun began to set, Melissa watched anxiously as her curious friends gathered around Judith to see what she meant. Slowly, both Melissa and Raziel could see and feel the change in her. Judith's 12-year-old features began to change into the tall, mature girl he first met at the abandoned site. Her fair skin slowly became sun-kissed dark and her neatly tied hair suddenly broke into the wild, savage form that it was, breaking her ribbon in the process. Her purple eyes glowed slightly. Her clothes began to tear, unable to handle Judith's sudden 'growth spurt'. Her huge bat-like wings burst out and Judith let out a cry of pain. Melissa winced. The transformation she had to go through every sundown must be excruciating.

            As expected, the kids cowered away like heck. Kent remained standing there, too shocked to move. Judith caught her breath for a few moments before standing up, her torn clothes slipped off her body, revealing her dark naked skin. She moved slowly towards Kent and whispered, "I'm sorry, Kent. I didn't want to lie to you or hide from you. I can only say this: I'm dangerous and I can kill. I don't want you to die by my wrath."

            She leaned forward to kiss his lips lightly, not wanting to end up falling into her instincts and sucking his energy. She could feel her bestial, ancestral self conquering her. She pushed Kent quickly away from her and flew off into the darkening sky. Melissa and Raziel watched the half-succubus flying away, ready to take her next victim.

            "She is going to kill! We have to stop her!" Melissa yelled as she took out her pendulum. She took to her heels but then stopped when she saw Raziel not following her. Raziel was looking at her with those pair of uncaring eyes.

            "We? I have no part of this. She had made her choice; she chose to become the succubus she was meant to be. No matter what, she'll always be one."

            "Listen here, Raziel or whatever name you are," Melissa growled as she grabbed on his collar. "Judith is my friend and it's my job to stop her from killing, because if she starts killing again, she'll be a bigger target for those hunters. Those hunters will stop at nothing to eliminate each and every one of us, and she will not be the first on their list, not if I have anything to say about it!"

            She let go of Raziel harshly and huffed, "If you don't want to help me, fine! But I'm not letting my friend die."

            So saying, she ran off, holding the pendulum high above her head, sensing her aura and ran to the direction the pendulum led her. Raziel glanced at the hectic children discussing loudly among themselves about Judith and at Melissa who was beginning to disappear out of sight.

            Raziel finally ran his claws through his bluish-black hair with a sigh and went to the direction Melissa went.

A/N: OK…has Melissa actually brought the humanity Raziel used to have out of him? Reviews plz!  


	8. The Search

A/N: Well, well, well! How's it going, my fellow readers? Great? Then let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Melissa ran around the city with the sunset-coloured pendulum in her hand. She looked around frantically for her half-succubus friend. Raziel followed her around, secretly detecting Judith's aura using his powers. He and Melissa practically walked down the whole city and the next, but still no sign of Judith.

            "We are getting nowhere, woman," Raziel said and sat on a bench at the bus stop. "Why can't you just let her go?"

            "There's still hope," Melissa also joined him on the bench. "I'm not giving up on her. Not now, not ever."

            As soon as she said it, her pendulum started to glow and point to somewhere in the east. Melissa's eyes filled with hope as she got up in a thrice to go where the pendulum was taking her. Raziel stayed at his seat for a few moments before following suite. He seemed like a relentless stalker, always on Melissa's trail, only that Melissa knew his existence and didn't seem to bother about it. The pendulum led the duo into a double-storey house that had a touch of English in it. Melissa sneaked into the house by climbing through the gates. Raziel passed through the gates with ease.

            Their presence alerted the dog of the house. It was a German Shepherd, and it barked furiously at the duo. Melissa cowered, muttering "Nice doggy, nice doggy" to this protective dog which didn't seem to buy that act. Raziel came close to the dog. The dog whined and lowered his head, obviously afraid of Raziel's deathly aura. He growled when Raziel reached over to touch the dog's head. He covered its eyes with his three-fingered claw and muttered something behind his scarf. The dog whined a little, yawned and fell into deep slumber. Raziel let his hand go and walked casually towards the quite amazed Melissa.

            "Great work, vampire!" Melissa complimented. Raziel shook her compliment off coolly.  

            Melissa sneaked to the back door and tried the doorknob. It was no use. The door was locked tight. Melissa groaned in exasperation. Raziel just stood there and watch. He didn't want to have any part of it and he didn't want to have anything to do with it now. Melissa gestured him to the door.

            "A little help here please?" 

            Raziel let out a sigh of defeat and walked through the door without any complication. He then opened the door from the inside and let Melissa in. Melissa didn't wait another second. She tiptoed upstairs and searched every room. The pendulum glowed brightly when she reached a small room. She pushed the half-closed door open and saw that it was the children's room. All five of the children were fast asleep. Melissa hushed Raziel as she walked slowly into the room. Raziel rolled his eyes; he had always been silent in doing things like this. He didn't need to be told to do so.

            Then, to Melissa's horror, she saw a huge dark figure with wide bat wings hovering over a small girl. It was beginning to lay its lips on the sleeping girl's lips. Melissa rushed towards the figure and pulled it away from her. They made quite a noise as Melissa and the figure fell onto the solid marble floor. The children were beginning to stir.

            "Judith, don't do this! You don't have to do this! This is not right! You're also kin to the humans!" Melissa urged.

            "Let me go, you bitch! I've made my decision and that's that!" Judith struggled from her grasp.

            Suddenly, the whole room was filled with screams of horror and fear as the lights were turned on. The five children who seemed to be in between 5 to 10 screamed in high-pitched voices when they saw the bat-like Judith and the freaky-looking vampire Raziel. Melissa tried to hush them but it was useless—they were too scared to stop screaming.

            "Who goes there?!" A man's voice was heard. The click of a gun was heard. The trio turned around and saw in horror that it was the man of the house carrying a big, long shot gun. The man and his wife looked at the trio in trepidation and, with shivering hands, the man pointed his gun at the trio.

            "Don't you dare make any false move or even touch the hair of my 5 kids or I'll shoot you! I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it!"

            Judith made a dash for it. She ran at top speed towards the window and crashed out of the house, fleeing out into the night sky. Raziel wanted to go over and make a dinner out of the couple but Melissa stopped him.

            "Are you crazy?! Think about the kids! Let's just get out of here!"

            Raziel growled when Melissa grabbed his hand and urged him to go. The man gave chase when the duo headed for the smashed window and fired a few shots. The wife screamed in both horror and anger as she yelled about not to end up shooting the kids. The man popped out of the smashed window the duo jumped out of and fired another two shots. One of the shots went through Raziel's calf. Raziel let out a small cry before hobbling along the rest of the road with Melissa propping him on her shoulders.

            "Can you still walk or something?" Melissa asked as soon as they were out of the house's range.

            "A little cut won't hurt anybody," Raziel groaned a little before adjusting himself to the pain. He had long trained himself to be immune and become one with the pain if ever he gets hurt. "What was that weapon he used on me?"

            "It's called a gun. Kills you anytime, if it doesn't leave you with a serious injury. That is, if you're human. Now let's go find her again. We can't just let her go on like this!"

            "Did you not just hear what your succubus friend has said? She had already made her decision. Don't stop her anymore. You have no right to change people's decision."

            "Yes, I know. But I have no right to let her die in the hands of the hunters either," Melissa said sadly as she took out her pendulum and began her search again.

            "You are the most relentless human I have ever met," Raziel said as he hobbled slowly behind her, using his wings to help him hover a few inches off the floor now and then to ease the pressure of his calf.

            "You don't call me a witch for nothing now, do you?" Melissa smiled at the Soul Reaver. 

                                                                        *

            Judith panted as she sat herself on a skyscraper. She was this close to satisfy her hunger but Melissa has foiled her plans. She had to suck the energy of a sleeping security guard to get into this skyscraper building. It had made her quite relieved to actually taste human energy again but it wasn't enough. She came into that English house and had set her eyes on those five children. It was like a feast lay out before her. And yet, Melissa and her vampire friend had to ruin everything!

            "There you are, Jude!"

            Judith spun round. Melissa and her vampire friend were there behind her. Her purple eyes glared venomously at them.

            "I was so close to having those kids!" Judith snarled at them. "What did you think you're doing?"

            "I was trying to save you," Melissa replied. "Don't do this, Jude. There has got to be another way out of all this. You can still be human. You don't have to give in to your succubus side."

            "I've made my decision," Judith looked away indignantly. "I am not going to lie to myself anymore. I am more succubus than human. I am the seed of my father. I am not going to let myself suffer again."

            "But Jude…"

            "I can't live like this anymore, Melissa, don't you get it?! I cannot hang on to myself any longer! Those crap you gave me, all the incantations, all those scrolls. It's not enough to suppress my powers! It's not strong enough to be the perfect power-limiter! It broke as soon as I went into one of my fits! Your stuff is useless to me!!"

            "There is always a new and stronger power-limiter. There will be!" Melissa begged, coming closer to her friend. "If you would give me some time, I can find it…"

            "I don't want any of your help anymore! I am what I am! You can't change me!"

            "You are what you choose to be, Jude! Don't do this to yourself! They are going to hunt you down and you'll be a bigger target to kill! I can't let you die!"

            "Let them get me! I'm not afraid!" Judith crossed her arms. "It's better to die than to live and become someone that I'm not! You'll join me too sooner or later, if they catch you! Why should you care?"

            "You're my friend, Jude. I cannot let you die."

            "Enough talk!" Judith raised a hand to shut her up. "If you don't want me to kill, then I might as well die now!"

            "NO! No, you can't!!!"

            Judith walked up to Raziel bravely and said, "You, vampire. You suck blood, right? Would a succubus's blood interest you?"

            Melissa rushed towards Judith to pull her away but Judith activated a force field of her own. Melissa flung backwards like a cannon ball. Judith then turned back to Raziel with flourish. Raziel was quite amazed at how Judith easily defeated Melissa.

            "So? What'll it be? Succubus's blood or me?"

            "I have evolved enough to be rid of this kind of primitive consumption. But your soul would be tantalizing," Raziel replied as he materialized his silver sword. "How can I be sure that I will not be flung away by your force field?"

            "I won't do anything to harm you, and I assure you, my force field only works on people I choose to work on."

            "You're quite an evolved species yourself," Raziel held his sword tight and raised it above his head, ready to strike. His calf was throbbing with pain but he didn't pay much attention to it. With this succubus's soul, his calf will heal in no time. Within seconds, he brought his sword down onto the succubus…

            Suddenly, she wasn't there anymore. He knew he had cut something but it wasn't her. He looked up and saw Judith in the arms of Kent, the back of the small boy's shirt cut in half. Judith blushed terribly at the sight of him.

            "Whew! That was close!" Kent swept an imaginary sweat off his brow.

            "Kent! Wha…What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Judith was surprised and shocked.

            "I followed you here. I've been on Melissa Celestial and that weirdo's tail for quite a while. You don't call me an outlaw kid for nothing if you don't have biker men for friends," Kent replied, then turned to Melissa and said, "You knew all along that Lavender was my crush, and you knew all along that she's a succubus. Why didn't you just tell us everything? We wouldn't be so shocked right now!"

            "Please, Kent. I told her not to tell you guys. I'm sorry, Kent, but I really cannot live normally like the rest of you. I have to have energy. I need energy to survive. I'll go crazy, like a madwoman if I don't do this. I'm not…human. Not anymore."

            "You don't have to hide from us," Kent scowled at his girlfriend. "We could've accepted you earlier, and we could help you out on your problem. What are friends for?"

            Judith shook her head. "No, I cannot let you into this. Death is the only way."

            She advanced towards Raziel who was still holding his sharp silver sword. Kent rushed in front of Judith and blocked her, his front facing Raziel, saying, "Then you will have to kill me first."

            "Kent! Get out of the way! Don't do this!" Melissa and Judith said almost in unison.

            "Listen to them, mortal. Get out of the way," Raziel said, his yellow eyes seemed menacingly evil at night. "It is your mate's choice. I'm just doing what she asked me to do."

            "No. I am not going to let her die. If someone has to die here, it's gonna be me."

            "Why are you doing this, mortal? I don't understand you humans sometimes."

            "Of course you don't understand! You weirdos don't know anything about human love! Our love exceeds all boundaries, even through heaven and hell. When you are in love, you would do anything to save your loved ones, even if it means sacrificing your own life! I had a crush on her ever since she came to this school, and now that I have her, I will not let her go that easily! Bring it on, you weirdo! Let me show you how human's true love works!"

            Raziel was quite confused. Why would humans do such a thing? Don't they care about their lives anymore? Is it that easy for them to just give up their lives just because they want to save someone else's life? The succubus wants to end her life willingly and she had every right to decide about her life, but these two humans thought that she had no right to be killed or to be willing to sacrifice her life, yet they thought it was right to sacrifice their own life just to save hers. All this thinking and contemplating made him suddenly conscious about his throbbing calf. He let the sword that was raised high above his head go and held his calf. The sword missed Kent about a few inches. Kent sat down abruptly.

            "That was _really_ close!" Kent gasped in panic.

            "Kent, you could've gotten yourself killed! You idiot!" Judith hugged him from behind, bursting into tears.

            "Well…I suppose I have to make it up to you then," Kent smiled sheepishly as his lips came closer to Judith. Judith back away in horror.

            "No, I can't! I'll end up sucking your energy!"

            "Then so be it," Kent replied nonchalantly as he kissed her deeply. Judith wanted to let go before she kills him but his kiss was so deep, so passionate and so full of love that she was reluctant to do so. She was even reluctant to suck his energy altogether. They shared their 3 minutes of love and passion together.

            When they finally parted, Kent said, "Now that wasn't so bad, was it? I can help you, Lavender. We can all help you. Trust me on this one."

            Judith nodded and flung herself into his warm arms.

            Melissa walked proudly towards Raziel and said with a smug, "Now aren't you glad that you didn't kill her in the first place, hmm?"   

            Raziel didn't reply. His calf was aching quite badly. All this goings-on made him unable to be one with the pain. Melissa noticed and took one of his arms and propped it on her shoulder, supporting him as they left the skyscraper before the police came and saw them and end up being accused of murdering the sleeping (now dead) security guard.

A/N: Now that's colossal! What happens next? Reviews plz! ^_^


	9. The Healing

A/N: Thanks, guys, for all your reviews (especially you, Psycho Virus ^_^). Now enjoy the rest of the show!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            For the first time since Raziel arrived in this god forsaken Material World, he was taken upstairs to Melissa's apartment. She tried to prop him on her shoulder and at the same time open the door to her home. For a dead vampire who is not of this world, he sure weights a tonne.

            Melissa was greeted by her fox elves as soon as she entered the house with Raziel. He saw them coming out of large bamboo tubes and they come in all sizes, big and small. One of the fox elves that first came out small turned into one huge fat fox elf that seemed like it has been eating non-stop ever since he was born. Raziel looked at the bamboo tubes and the fox elves immediately squeaked in fear and cowered at one corner.

            "Don't worry, my pets. He's a friend, well, sort of," Melissa said as she sat him down on her canopy bed. Raziel winced a little when he felt his bleeding calf throbbing real hard.

            "This can't be happening!" Raziel muttered to himself. "I am supposed to heal better and quicker than anyone! Why am I not healing now? Damn it!"

            "You mean you can regenerate yourself the moment you get a wound?" Melissa asked in astonishment as she brought the first-aid kit.

            "It always works well in the Spectral Realm and in other Material Realms. This is not happening."

            "Well, maybe it doesn't work that way in this world, whatever you call it. Stick out your leg a little."

            Raziel reluctantly did as he was told. He hated to be ordered around but his throbbing calf was enough to force him to do so. Melissa had a basin of hot water. She soaked a clean white cloth into the steaming water and wanted to press it on Raziel's calf but Raziel suddenly moved further away from her.

            "Just hold still, will you?" Melissa grumbled as she grabbed hold of Raziel's ankle. She pressed the cloth hard onto the shot wound, resulting to a sudden smack on her hand that held the cloth from the Soul Reaver.

            "That hurts!!!" Raziel snarled, his yellow eyes glaring venomously at Melissa.

            "If you hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much, you dumb ass!" Melissa complained, massaging her hand. His smack was really quick and hard—so fast that probably her force field wasn't quick enough to counter him.

            "Well, if you hadn't dragged me into this wild goose chase, this wouldn't have happened!"

            "Well, if you hadn't stopped me from letting Judith showing her true self in front of those kids, I wouldn't be in this wild goose chase! And I don't think it's a wild goose chase! We found her and stopped her now, didn't we?"

            "You didn't even do anything to stop her, just plain silly talk," Raziel replied coldly. "It was her mate."

            "Well, at least we prevented her from committing suicide," Melissa argued. 

            Raziel ran his claws through his hair again as he muttered, "Well, I was kind enough not to kill her. It had nothing to do with you, woman."

            "Excuse moi? You didn't just fall into kindness or anything; you were struggling to keep your state while holding your aching leg! I'm not stupid, you know! I saw the way you winced every time you raised the sword higher to slash Kent and Judith into sushi!"

            Raziel was getting bored of all these useless arguments. He looked away, swearing in his heart that he will get her soul no matter what the cost. Melissa took his ankle and soaked the cloth again.

            "Now hold still. This might sting a little."

            Raziel winced and groaned a little as she pressed the hot cloth on his calf. She wiped off the excess blood (which seemed quite greenish-black) and cleaned the wound through and through. She put antiseptic on the wound and took out a surgical needle and some thread from the kit. She sewed the gaping wound and dabbed more antiseptic on it. Finally, she bandaged the calf nice and tidy.

            "Where did you learn all these healing treatments?" Raziel asked, quite surprised and amazed.

            "My big brother used to study in medical school before he finally embraced his witch identity," Melissa replied. "He taught me quite a lot and showed me loads of stuff on this field. He never wanted to be a witch at all, but then he stopped being a doctor when he failed to save one of his patients. It caused him quite a great pain. Guess my family finally succeeded in a way to bring him back to witch-dom. I brought this kit along with me when I ran away from home."

            "You are really a peculiar human. You want to be a witch, yet you do not wish to undergo training. I have yet to understand you humans in this Material Realm."

            Melissa didn't reply. She kept all the utensils back into her kit and put it away. While she was doing her stuff, Raziel looked around. Her house was filled with posters of gothic and creepy creatures, such as Draculas and ogres like the Uruk-hai and the Orcs from LOTR. Her whole house seemed sinister and dark. On her shelves were loads of gizmos used by witches, like talismans, incantation scrolls, beads and such. On a small cabinet was filled with jars upon jars of weird-looking elixirs. One of the fox elves braved itself to fly over to him and smelled him. The other fox elves followed suite, sniffing him like they were dogs smelling something nice to eat. Raziel's annoyed yellow eyes glared at them and they all cowered again from him.

            Raziel noticed a black-coloured safe and pointed at it, asking, "What is in there?"

            "If you're thinking of money, you'll be disappointed," Melissa replied after taking a glance at the safe. "That is where I keep all those nasty demons and souls I've exorcised so far. I have to put them under lock and key before they get out and harm the living again."

            "Did you say there are souls too?"

            "Yes, why?"

            "I don't want to impose but if I were to heal faster, I need suck souls. Would you mind if I consume some of your souls you kept in there?"

            "No way hose! Some of those souls are proven useful to me! I can't just simply let you eat them as you like! If you wanna heal, you gotta heal the hard way!"

            Raziel sulked behind his scarf as he stared at the safe. All those souls in there waiting to be consumed. They seemed so tempting. He was not going to walk around with a bandage on his calf and that's that! Melissa noticed and sighed.

            "Oh, alright. I'll get you a soul that I can spare for you tomorrow. I'm beat. I need to go to bed, pronto!"

           She went into her bathroom and took a shower—Raziel could hear the water running—and spent quite a long time in there. Raziel was about to go in and find out what was taking her so long in that room when she came out fully dressed in her black nightgown. Melissa scowled at him and said, "You pervert! What do you think you're doing? Trying to go in and sneak up on me like that guy you killed?"

            "Of course not!" Raziel said as he backed away. "Why do you humans always think something that is far from the truth?"

            "Instincts, my dear vampire. We often have to rely on that instinct just in case people are trying to do what we really think they're trying to do. I gotta go to bed. Goodnight!"

            Melissa jumped onto her bed and pulled her blanket over her. All her fox elves slinked back into their bamboo tubes and could be heard snoring away in their slumber. She reached for the controls on her dresser table beside her bed and turned on the air-conditioner. She turned off the lights and all was quiet as soon as she had her head on her pillow. Raziel sat beside the safe, waiting longingly for dawn to come so that he could have a taste of the soul he hadn't been sucking for quite a while now.

            "Raziel?" Melissa suddenly voiced out in the dark.

            "What is it, woman?" Raziel asked, his yellow eyes staring at the canopy bed.

            "I know you still think that I should leave Judith alone and become the succubus she is, and I know you're still quite pissed off at my attitude ever since we first met."

            "It is quite true."

            "And I'm sure you're still mad at me for getting you hurt. I feel partly responsible for influencing you to come with me and for your leg."

            Raziel just grunted in reply.

            "But…in a way…thanks for your help. Thanks for…saving Judith's life." 

            Raziel's eyes widen a little. After all that trouble and after admitting in the first place that he wanted to kill her, she still thanked him? That was the one thing he hadn't heard for a long, long time. What's with this human? Why would she want to thank him? He didn't remember doing anything to deserve her thanks—except the incident at the beach, but that was over now. He actually tried to kill the succubus and yet she thanked her? Humans are so difficult to understand.

            "You're welcome."

A/N: Ha ha ha! Raziel has much to learn from humans in this Material Realm! Reviews plz!


	10. The Blooming of Hearts

A/N: Thank you, everyone, for your support in helping me to continue with my story. Now let's get on with the show!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            The sun shone into Melissa's dark little crib. The alarm clock went off. Melissa groaned and reached to turn it off. She was about to drop back to sleep when her covers were lifted by our vampire undead hero Raziel.

            "Wake up, woman," Raziel's cold tone seared into Melissa's sleepy ears.

            "Damn you, vampire, what is it?!" Melissa grumbled as she snatched the blanket away from Raziel and pulled it over her. "Isn't it enough that you've spent a night here and now you want to ruin my beauty sleep?!"

            "You promised me, woman. Now get up," Raziel took her covers up again.

            "What in the heck did I promise you? I didn't promise you anything!" Melissa snatched it back again.

            "You promised that you will be opening that box and allow me to consume a soul. I want to heal my leg." He took it up again. Melissa grumbled loudly and took it back again. This repeated a few times before Melissa sat up in exasperation and yelled at him like a madwoman.

            "Alright! Alright! I'll get you your breakfast already! Sheesh! You just can't seem to let me enjoy my slumber in peace, can you?"

            Melissa crawled out of the bed, falling onto the floor in the process and crawled all the way to the shelf where she puts her weird witch gizmos. She dragged herself up and reached up to the top shelf to get her jewelry box (although it didn't seem like one—it's so creepy and downright freaky). She fumbled through her jewel box and took out a key shaped like a skull. She then crawled like someone who was desperate for water towards the safe and turned the combination lock before fitting in the skull-like key into the keyhole.

            Raziel could feel the aura of all the dead souls and demons kept in that safe. As Melissa opened the safe, he could hear them moaning and groaning eerily, letting out threats to kill Melissa and have their revenge if they ever get out of their prisons. Raziel could see that they were kept in jars sealed with different coloured incantation scripts stuck on them. Melissa opened her groggy eyes a little wider to see which one she should give away as Raziel's breakfast.

            "Hmm…nope, very important if I have to curse someone…" Melissa muttered as she checked the jars one by one. "Nope, too strong, might burst your guts out…Uh-uh, this one is my favourite…No way, it took me days to exorcise this one…Let's see, which one is none of my good use…?"

            "Hurry up, woman, or I'll suck your soul instead," Raziel grumbled a little impatiently.

            "Hold your horses, you greedy little vampire! It's not easy to catch all these critters, you know! How can I just give them away so easily?"

            "Just go on. I refuse to walk around with a bandage on my leg like an invalid."

            "Geez! If that's your problem, then you're even fussier than I am when I got a zit on my face."

            Finally, after much contemplation, she took out two jars: one with a yellow incantation script and one with a blue incantation script. She yawned and said, "Well, these are the only ones I can spare for the moment. This yellow one is some relentless soul who just won't stop haunting this nice sweet senior family, so I had to use the hard way. This blue one is a real nasty pain in the neck. He possessed the son of a Mexican family who just migrated here and caused a lot of trouble. Not even the priest or their Mexican holy men could save him, but I did."

            "A restless soul and a demon that has evil at its core," Raziel took the jars and eyed at them in interest. "This seems promising."

            He lifted the jars high in the air and smashed them onto the ground. The two trapped souls moaned scarily as they floated out of their prisons, screaming bloody murder, as in wanting to murder Melissa who trapped them in there. Melissa sort of stepped away from them before she gets anywhere near death. Raziel immediately removed his scarf and revealed his jawless mouth, sucking the two souls into his gut. She could see them falling down his thorax and into his really skinny body. The bandage on his calf came right off as if it hadn't been bandaged tight enough. In its place grew his bluish skin over the stitched wound. Even the stitches came off altogether, leaving a small scar that wasn't too noticeable.

            "Impressive! Now that's what I call extraordinaire!" Melissa said in amazement.

            "It feels great to have my wound healed," Raziel replied as he threw his scarf across his face with flourish. Melissa's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He actually looked…cool and handsome the way he did that with his scarf. Raziel sighed in relief as he checked his calf. Nothing serious now—just a tiny, scar. That didn't bother him anymore than it did when he had it bandaged. He ran his fingers through his hair again and that made Melissa's heart skipped another beat.

            'Damn! What's going on? Why does my heart race every time he did those things? Can it be…? No! Impossible! It's not happening!'

            "Why are you blushing, woman? Are you running a fever?" Raziel suddenly asked.

            "No way hose, partner! I'm just…pissed off because you woke me up from my beauty sleep!" Melissa answered hastily. "Now out of my way! I need to get some shut-eye!"

            Raziel moved aside as she jumped onto the bed trying to eliminate the feeling she just felt for the Soul Reaver. 'No way am I, Melissa Celestial, having a crush with that stupid vampire! No way! It simply isn't done!' she thought hotly. She forced herself to sleep and she did within seconds. Only about 15 minutes later, she finally woke up to find Raziel sitting on her large table facing the window. His bluish-black hair actually shone under the sun. Melissa rubbed the sleep off her eyes, trying to hide her blushing face.

            "What time is it…?" Melissa groaned as she took a look at her alarm clock. She was horrified that she was 10 minutes late for her class. She skipped out of bed immediately and made a dash to the bathroom. Raziel was surprised at her sudden outburst.

            "What is it, woman? Why the rush?"

            "I'm late for class! I am SO late for class! Why didn't you wake me up?!" Melissa hollered from inside her bathroom.

            "Because you said you were angry when I woke you up, so I didn't want to repeat the same mistake again."

            "You don't know when to obey my orders and not to, do you?!" Melissa yelled as she came out of the bathroom clothed in her usual black. "You are dumber than you look!!"

            "I don't obey orders. I just don't repeat the same mistakes if I know what's good for me," Raziel replied nonchalantly.

            "I don't know why I bother to argue with you! I'm going to be so damn late!" Melissa groaned as she dashed out of her apartment, leaving Raziel alone in the dark, sinister room. A few moments later, after seeing Melissa taking the next bus from her window, he went over to her wardrobe, took out her black leather long jacket, draped it on and walked out of the apartment towards the direction of her school.

                                                                        *

            Raziel sighed as another day went by sitting up on the tree waiting and watching as Melissa's class ended. This time he wasn't caught by any janitor or any other humans for that matter. He noticed a new janitor and a younger one at that—just retired, probably. He got off the tree and waited for Melissa to come out before following behind her as usual.

            She stopped in the middle of the big city where there stood a large fountain. It was a beautiful fountain with a statue of a dove in the middle of it acting as the figurine that squirts the water out in a rhythmic motion. She sat at the fountain and waited for customers to come. Slowly, one by one, people young and old approached her timidly to ask for questions. Some were really simple ones ("I wanna know if my business will work out"), some were weird, ridiculous ones ("I wanna know if Britney Speares dig me") and some were downright freaky ("I wanna know what colour is my secretary's underwear today"), but it was all for the cause of business and making money.

            As the day ended, she picked up her jar of money and kept all her fox elves back to where they belong. She walked slowly towards Raziel who was sitting at the far corner of the fountain and asked with a slight pink running across her face, "So, uh, Raziel…How would you like to hang out with me?"

            "Hang on where? Are you expecting me to follow you while you hang yourself?" Raziel asked, confused.

            "No, you dork! I don't mean by that kind of hanging! I meant by a nice quiet meal at my favourite hangout. I know you don't eat, but you can at least accompany me…right?"

            Raziel began to contemplate. 'This human is actually allowing me to follow her. She actually wants her to come with her. What plan does she have in mind of all this?'

            "If you're thinking of me trying to kill you or something, lay it off. I mean no harm…really!"

            Finally, after a momentary silence, Raziel replied, "Alright, woman. It'll be a convenience for me to discover your weaknesses. Let me remind you, woman, that I still want your soul."

            "Whatever," Melissa waved away that remark. She seemed really confident that he would never ever find out how to kill her. She herself has not much of a clue on how the beings of the underworld are able to penetrate her force field. She has been repelling spirits and harmful souls all her life that she never stopped to consider what it would take for a spirit to be able to pass through the field. She can touch them but they can't touch her; that's how the system has been all about.

            Melissa took Raziel's hand (and blushed in the process) and led him to KFC and had her dinner there. Everyone was looking weirdly at Raziel with that black leather jacket, body of neither skin nor muscles and those eerie eyes and blue skin. Melissa has gotten used to those stares for a while—she had her eyes on Raziel who was looking intently at the fried chicken like it was a piece of rare jewel. Well, it ought to be a normal reaction, judging by the Raziel's lifestyle have been for the past goodness-knows-how-many years. Melissa grinned and offered him a sip of her coke, which really annoyed him because she knew he had no lower jaw to suck the drink properly. Melissa laughed—she was beginning to love teasing this vampire.

            In fact, she was beginning to fall for him altogether.

            After dinner, Melissa took Raziel and walked around the busy city. They window-shopped almost all the stores available in this area of the Big Apple. Finally when they reached a disco pub where the loud banging songs of rock blasted out and could be heard even when you a mile away from the place. Melissa hesitated to walk past the pub. Raziel noticed.

            "I sense fear. What is it, woman?"

            "This is my 'ex-boyfriend's' and his gang's favourite hangout. His death should be well-known by now," Melissa replied quite nervously. "One of his gang members who studied in the same school with me gave me the stink-eye this morning."

            "Stink…eye?" 

            "He glared at me, OK? He glared at me like I was some sort of a criminal! Now let's get out of here," Melissa said exasperatedly. Before she was able to turn away from the disco pub, she was surrounded by really mean-looking thugs, both men and women. They were all living in the wild outlaw side, with studs everywhere on their faces, badly dyed hair and terrible punk hairstyles. They even have grubby grunge clothes to match.

            "Well, well, well, if it ain't the ex-chieftess and his new Gothic boyfriend!" one of the punks looked at her and Raziel in distaste, like they were a bunch of punching bags ready to be trashed.

            "Look, I don't want any trouble, OK? Whatever happened to Joe was not any of my business!" Melissa tried to sweet-talk them out of the situation but the thugs didn't buy it. 

            "Look here, sweet cake. You were the last person to be with our chief and you disappeared suddenly without a trace. Does that sound like it had nothing to do with you?" His question was answered by a loud cry of objections from the crowd. He grinned, "I don't think so."

            "So, I can see you trashed our chief—God bless his soul—and hanging out with a new bum," one of the girls came forward and twirled her finger around Raziel's loose end of his scarf. "Why, the chief ain't good enough for a scumbag like you, you little whore?!"

            "Bite your tongue, you she-devil," Raziel growled behind his scarf, his eyes glowing like fire. The girl let his scarf go with horror written in her eyes, as if she saw an unimaginable terror inside his eyes.

            "That's it, lady!" the thugs held out their life-threatening crowbars and were ready to strike. "You and your little weasel boyfriend are going down!"

            Melissa had a solemn vow not to use her witch powers on humans, but this was an emergency. She was about to brace herself when Raziel moved forward and, with one swipe, sent all the heavy crowbars flying away. The thugs were dumbstruck for a second there.

            "I made your leader a dinner out of him. You got a problem with that?"

A/N: Oh dear! They are gonna be so toast! Reviews plz!


	11. The Hesitation

A/N: Hello, guys! Missed my story? Sorry for the delay. I'm experiencing a serious writer's block. Let's go!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            "What did you say?" the thug looked at Raziel in horror.

            "I said I'm the one who killed your leader. I ate his soul," Raziel repeated his statement again. "You got a problem with that, you brute?"

            All the thugs glared murderously at Raziel. Melissa was stunned. She had never expected that a vampire who threatened to suck her soul during their first encounter with each other was now willing to stand up for her. She blushed a little bit, hoping that Raziel or the thugs didn't notice it.

            "So you're the one!" another thug growled. "You killed our chief in order to keep that little whore all to yourself! How could you?!"        

            "So what? I was just hungry," Raziel replied, as if there is no fault in killing anybody.

            "You are going down! You and that evil bitch are going down!!" the leader of the thugs yelled and charged at Raziel. The others followed suite. Raziel pushed Melissa aside and braced himself.

            Everything happened so fast. Melissa couldn't help being even more stunned. The vampire actually beat off the thugs without as much as breaking a sweat (if he ever sweats, that is). Glowing aura came out of his three-fingered claws and Melissa could see the way he sent those thugs flying with just one swipe of either hand. He was too quick for them to catch, and they topple like cards blown by the wind every time they gang up and tried to attack him in groups. Soon, blood could be seen squirting and smearing everywhere: the rocky floor, the nearby cars, on Raziel's clothes, everywhere. People who came out of the pub to see what the commotion was all about and passers-by who stopped to see the fight turned from fascination into horror. 

            Raziel didn't care about all those eyes staring at him in trepidation. His only thing in mind was to protect Melissa and kill those bastards before they kill the both of them. One by one, he slashed their throats, sending streams of blood everywhere in the air and hitting on things or people he didn't bother to care. One by one, the thugs fell onto the ground, clutching their throats and gasped and gurgled for breath before they stopped struggling for life abruptly, slipping suddenly into their deaths. People began to scream in fear as Raziel removed his scarf and sucked the thugs' souls down into his gutter. Melissa was speechless throughout the whole process. Never before has she seen someone so oblivious towards his surroundings and do his thing as if it were none of those people's concern.

            Soon, Melissa could hear the sirens of police cars. Someone must have called the police. Melissa grabbed Raziel's arm and chanted a spell. Immediately, they disappeared into thin air in front of everyone before the police cars reached towards the crowd surrounding a number of dead bodies.

                                                                        *

            The duo found themselves in Melissa's apartment a few moments later. Melissa has used teleportation to send her and Raziel back home. She didn't want to do this and create a scene among the people but she had no choice—she and Raziel were surrounded by people at that time and she was sure that they would gang up and hold them down until the police arrived if they were to run and escape, and she didn't want to risk the vampire killing those innocent people to just to make way for an escape.

            "You idiot! You are so outta here!! How could you do this in front of everybody?" Melissa exclaimed. "You could've gotten us arrested or killed!!"

            "I have no concern of what you humans think. They were trying to kill you and I cannot allow that," Raziel replied coolly.    

            "So…" Melissa said hesitantly after a momentary silence, "why did you want to save me?"

            "I have no intention to save you!" Raziel snapped almost immediately, his eyes flared at her in denial.

            "Then why did you fight those people when they tried to attack me?"

            Raziel stared at Melissa for a minute or two before looking away and muttered, "I swore to kill you. I will not let anyone else to do the job. Your soul is mine, and I swore to get it with my own hands. Are you satisfied, woman?"

            Without warning, Melissa hugged the vampire from behind and said, "Thank you…"

            Raziel was dumbstruck. The witch was actually letting herself near him. Has she lost her nerve? Was she willing to give her life up and surrender her soul to him? Was that the gesture? It was worth a try. Raziel slowly, but silently, materialized the sword in his hand and had a good grip on it, ready to strike. He noticed Melissa's eyes closed when she hugged him in her arms tenderly. Raziel couldn't wait to get her off his body and into his gut. Quietly so as not to alert her, Raziel raised the sword, the sharp tip of the sword aiming her ribs, ready to tear her apart…

            Again, he felt the reluctance building up inside him. It wasn't that feeling of weirdness. It wasn't that feeling of everything being not right. It wasn't the reason that she didn't beg for mercy. It wasn't also the feeling of everything being too simple. It wasn't the feeling he felt when he tried to kill her for the first time. It wasn't all that at all. None of those. The way her eyes closed and her serene smile made him hesitant. The feeling of her arms around him and her dark hair as she laid her head on his back made him feel guilty of what he was trying to do. He couldn't explain it. He found it hard to understand this feeling. He suddenly felt warm inside and when he noticed the sword he was holding and realized what he wanted to do, there was a dead weight in his gut and an aching in his heart (although his heart is pretty much undead).

            Raziel sighed. His hesitance had made him fail his intentions once again. He dematerialized the sword and shoved Melissa's arms away, "You don't have to thank me, woman. There's nothing to thank."

            Melissa watched as Raziel climbed out of the window and sat on the fire escape stairs, staring at the full moon on the sky. She blushed yet again at the suave way he looked at the moon, as if he was yearning for the beautiful being that resides in the moon to come down. She joined him, resting her arms on the window sill as she and the Soul Reaver stared at the moon-lit sky.

            Suddenly, there was a frantic knocking at the door, breaking Melissa out of her blissful thoughts. She groaned and stomped towards the door, ready to give this party-pooper a piece of her mind. She opened the door and yelled, "Whaddaya want?!"

            She was surprised to see Judith's friends and brother at the door. Their eyes were scared and desperate. Raziel came back into the apartment and to the front door to check what it was all about.

            "Tiger? Medusa? Hanson? Guys, what are you doing here at a night like this? You should be home."

            "We need your help, please, this is urgent!" Karen begged.

            "Can't it wait? You always ask for predictions…" Melissa was cut short by Mickey's tiny voice.

            "It can't wait! And it's not about predictions! It's something to do with Lavender!!"

            "What is wrong with the half-succubus?" Raziel asked, curious.

            "One word," Kent replied. "Hunter."

A/N: 0_0! Hunter?! What's going to happen?! NOT TELLING! :P Reviews plz!  


	12. The Fight for Survival

A/N: Hello, my friends! Are you dying to hear the rest of the story? Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Melissa and Raziel ran ahead of everyone else. Melissa feared the worst. Many questions went through her mind. How did the hunters get here? How did they find out about Judith? How on earth did they find her location? What are they going to do with her if they had caught her? That question needs not to be answered; it was too unimaginable. 

            The pendulum in Melissa's hand began to glow really bright and pointed towards the west. Melissa followed. The rest trailed from behind, struggling to keep up with the witch. Raziel could see that when it comes to her friend, especially someone who is of the same fugitive situation as herself, she puts everything behind her. He was curious about what these hunters were all about? Are they the same kind of hunters that used to hunt him when he was a vampire in his time? Or are they the kind that he used to lead when he was Sarafan? Whatever kind of hunters they are, Raziel was sure they were the type that takes no prisoners.

            The pendulum took them to an abandoned air force plain. That place has been abandoned after an uneventful accident that took the lives of many pilots and trainees. The whole place was an abomination. It seemed that those people were really leaving in a hurry after the accident and left the place unclean and unguarded. Ruins of the crashed plane were still there, and the site was not a sight for sore eyes at all. As they crept into the plain and went on searching, Raziel signaled them to look at the direction of the warehouse were planes were kept inside.

            There, in the warehouse, were the hunters. They all looked really sinister and dark, with their robes as black as night and their hoods across their heads, covering their faces. Judith was barely dressed—she was only draped with a white cloth across her bosoms and a white loincloth at the lower half of her body. Hanson tried to stop Kent from experiencing a serious nosebleed. She was tied onto a pole and below her were a huge stack of cardboard, hay and other flammable materials.

            "Oh no!" Karen exclaimed, trying to suppress herself from screaming. "They're going to burn her alive just like Joan of Arc! What are we going to do?"

            "There's only one way we can do," Melissa replied. "We'll have to distract them and free Jude from that pole. Then we'll try to escape and get her out of there to somewhere secluded."

            "But where will we hide her? We have nowhere else to go!" Tiger was equally worried. Raziel wanted to tell him about shifting to the Spectral Realm, but decided against it. He had no way of going back and even if he had, The Squid would be waiting.

            "We'll think about that later. Let's break up and act as a distraction. Once they're out of the way, one of us will have to get to Jude and untie her."

            "I'll go and untie her," Kent volunteered immediately.

            "Are you suicidal?! What if someone pops out of nowhere and drive a stake through your heart?!" Medusa widened her eyes as big as ping pong balls.

            "I'm willing to die for her. Nothing is going to stop me."

            "Alright, you've made your choice. Just be careful," Melissa nodded. "Come on, kids. Let's arm ourselves and get us some serious nutcase hunters' butt to kick!"

            Everyone spread out. Mickey, Hanson, Tiger and Raziel went for the right and Melissa, Karen and Medusa went for the left. Kent stayed behind in waiting until the coast is clear. They armed themselves with anything they could find (except Melissa and Raziel)—plank wood, iron rods, rusted hammers and the like. All of them crept towards the warehouse and hid behind until Melissa gave the signal. They could hear the hunters chanting certain weird verses that they didn't understand. Melissa pricked her ears to hear what was going on.

            "My fellow members of the hunt," Melissa heard the bellow of the so-called leader of the hunters booming throughout the whole warehouse. "We are gathered here today to witness the burning of this blasphemous beast that has been terrifying and killing our beloved citizens of the human race! Many people say that every being is the creation of the Almighty. But this _beast_ here," he spat out the word, "is no creation of Heaven, but of Hell and by the Devil itself! For no creation of holiness would commit such crime as murder and making food supplies out of humans!"

            The hunters cheered in agreement. Karen tugged feverishly at Melissa's sleeve to urge her to start the attack. Melissa laid a finger on her lips and mouthed the words "Not yet". She continued hearing the rest of the speech.

            "So it is time, brothers and sisters of the human race, we, the protectors of all mankind, shall perform the sacred duty of sending this unholy demon back where she belongs!"

            The hunters cheered again, and this time, it was the sound for the kill. Melissa could hear the sound of crackling fire on a torch and the sound of those flammable materials crackling and burning, the fire devouring everything in its path. In the midst of the hunters' cheers of victory, Melissa gave the signal to her side of the group. Raziel saw Melissa swishing her hand down and signal his side of the group to enter. Kent stayed behind in waiting, armed with an iron rod.

            Needless to say, there was much havoc going on inside the warehouse. Everyone made so much racket like "Hey! I'm here, catch me!" or "Come and get me, baby!" or "Unhand her, you psychotic hunters!" and etc, and etc. They all led the hunters out of the warehouse so that Kent can sneak in and untie Judith. He used the iron rod to beat his way out of the burning flames and reach to Judith.

            "Kent! You've come for me!" Judith was both touched and happy to see him.

            "No girlfriend of mine is going to become bonfire wood," Kent winked as he undid the ropes on her wrists. He swept her off her feet and carried her out of the warehouse. But unfortunately, before he was able to step out of the warehouse, one of hunters suddenly appeared out of nowhere (just as Medusa predicted it would) and grabbed his feet. Kent fell down head long to the ground and dropped Judith in the process. Another hunter grabbed hold of Judith and wound an incantation scroll around her forehead before she had the chance to repel him with her force field. 

            "Let her go, you racism piece of shit!" Kent shouted as he struggled to free himself from the hunter's grasp.

            The other kids spotted the trouble and ran and pounced on the hunter, forcing him to let Judith go. Luck wasn't on their side forever. After much effort of trying to defeat the hunters and escape from them, the gang was caught. They were simply too outnumbered, even though Raziel have used his famous technique of killing and soul-sucking. Judith and Melissa were right—these hunters were like white hair. The more he killed, the more hunters came to get him. He began to wonder if these hunters were even human at all.    

            Three hunters have each had Judith, Raziel and Melissa in their grasp, while the children were in the hands of a few more hunters in the background. The trio was led towards the leader of the hunters, who seemed almost as tall as Raziel. He smirked behind his hood. 

            "Well, well, well. It seems like we have some newcomers to join in the ceremonial bonfire. Our famous witch Melissa Celestial and a new species of vampire. Looks like we are experiencing a 'Kill two birds with a stone' situation here—three for the fact!"

            "You'll never get away with this, you hunters! You give no peace for us!" Melissa yelled. "We just want to live normally and peacefully just like everyone else! Why can't you just leave us alone?!"

            "Because we cannot tolerate a potential human-killer in our midst! We are here to wipe out all evil entities off this face of the earth!" the leader bellowed, then turned to the crowd before him, "Brothers and sisters of the hunt! We have done the human race a great deed. We are going to be rid of yet another three of these blasphemous creatures! This leads to another number less of their treacherous existence! If fire doesn't do it, anything will do! We shall start with the female demon!"

            Raziel knew that he meant Judith. He wanted to help but somehow those chains that wrapped around his wrists were somewhat hanging with dozens upon dozens of incantation slips that electrocuted his hands every time he tried to break free. He had to watch helplessly as Judith was led towards the leader. She was forced to kneel in front of him. He took out a dagger from the inside the sleeve of his robe and held it high in the air, chanting something gibberish.

            Judith turned towards her friends with tear-filled eyes and said, "Bye, guys. You're great friends. I'll never forget you all. Take care of Tiger for me," and before the leader brought down the dagger onto her chest, for that split second, she whispered, "I love you, Kent."

            The sound of the stab was unbearable to both the kids and Melissa. The leader thrust the dagger deeper into her chest and added pressure onto it, making sure that Judith has received the fatal blow. As he tugged the dagger out, Judith became limp and fell to the floor, the last tears trickling out of her fine purple eyes. The cheers of the hunters drowned the voices of the children screaming and crying for her, especially Kent, who was the most devastated of all the kids. He screamed, shouted, raved and struggled but his voice was no match for the hunters' cheers. The hunter who held him let him go and he ran towards the dead Judith, wailing and hugging her body close to his chest.

            "Take him away," the leader said coldly. "And take that filthy being to be burned."

            Two of the hunters stepped out, taking Kent and Judith's body each. Kent protested and struggled, wailing not to take her away from him but they were much stronger. Raziel sighed silently as he watched the hunter dragging Judith's body away. Suddenly he felt a strong aura. So strong that it almost suffocated him. He turned around and saw Melissa's eyes were dark and screaming murder. Is this her full power? He never felt this kind of force before.

            "And now it's time for the witch…" the leader's words trailed off when he saw Melissa's hair began to float. Raziel was also equally shocked at the sight of her.

            "No one is allowed to burn my best friend," Melissa cracked her knuckles behind her back, "and no one is allowed to kill my best friend AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!!"

            So saying, her whole body began to burn. But it wasn't fire. It was a certain aura that burning and crackled like fire. The ropes that bind her hands immediately turned to ash. She started chanting spells and incantations and started to release loads and loads of aura balls at everyone, hitting them wildly. She released her fox elves she kept in her pockets and, with her burning body, sped towards the crowd of hunters, throwing more aura balls at them. She materialized a spear from her 'Peace' pendant she was wearing and continued attacking the hunters with it. 

            She was uncontrollable. Her eyes were tear-filled but full of hate and bent on revenge. She didn't care of the incoming danger—her force field and her fox elves have taken care of that—and she definitely didn't care whether she was going to die or not if she had overloaded her powers. Raziel had never seen her at this state. He had to go over and help her calm down. He had to. There was no other way. Besides, her reckless killing has wasted all the souls he could suck—they disintegrated as soon as she plunged her spear at them. Luckily she had the right mind not to kill the children.    

            Then he saw, from the corner of his eye, the leader who was in between the midst of attacking and fleeing crowd of hunters taking out a gun from the other sleeve. A sudden fear went through his mind. He had a feeling that whatever came out of this gun is able to withstand and pierce through Melissa's force field. He didn't know how but he knew it would happen. He was about to rush over and butt his head onto the leader's gut—at least he could take a few bullets—but was hit by a hunter who was flung away by Melissa's aura. The hunter's body had a real dead weight on him that Raziel couldn't get up. He saw the leader aiming the gun towards the raving Melissa who was killing everyone (except the kids, who have escaped into somewhere safe, I hope) in her path. Raziel wanted to yell but he couldn't be heard—the hunters running away and screaming bloody murder was drowning his voice. He heard the click of the gun's safety pin being released and…

            When Raziel finally got himself off the hunter's pressing body, he saw Melissa's body flying in the mid-air, flung backwards by the impact of the bullet hit squarely on the hollow of her throat.

A/N: 0_0…Oh no…*LONG SILENCE* Reviews plz…-_-  


	13. The End

A/N: I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is you're going to read the continuation of this fic, but the bad news is THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER! So read it and enjoy it while you still have hope! ^_^

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership on the Legacy of Kain and its characters

                                                            UNDYING LOVE

            Raziel was dumbstruck as he watched Melissa flung backwards and onto the solid ground by the leader's shot. The hollow of her throat was squirting out blood and her eyes were widened in disbelief as she struggled to breathe through her punctured throat. Her chest rose and fell abruptly as she painfully tried to breathe, the blood oozing out every time she drew a breath into her lungs.

            Raziel roared and broke the chains that bind his wrists. He had never felt so infuriated before. It was as if he was consumed by the fire of hate, burning and raging through his heart like a thousand flames. He threw off the scarf that wrapped across his face, revealing his jawless mouth and his vampiric fangs. He jumped into the crowd and clawed at everyone in sight. It was like a huge thunderstorm happening in the middle of the abandoned air force plain. Bodies of hunters flew at every direction and blood flowed like rain, staining the place red, drenching Raziel's body and clothes. If he were the traditional vampire, this amount of blood would have been a great feast for him. But he sucked souls, and those souls were like candy to him. He slashed a hunter to death and the next split second the unfortunate soul of the hunter went down his gut. 

            Everything was like a storm. Raziel crashed through the crowd, slashing and throwing away hunters that were in his path. His eyes were focusing on the leader. He was bent to kill and rip his throat off his body. The leader noticed him incoming and aimed the gun at Raziel. He fired a few shots onto him. Raziel's body suddenly ached, like a dozen pieces of incantation strips planted into his body. He fell onto the ground, trying to hold on to the pain and get up, to no avail.

            "You think it is easy for you to even touch a hair on my body, you villainous vampire?" the leader came forward and smirked. "Think again. I've been around long enough to know that beings like you have a certain protection against attacks, so I loaded this gun with bullets made out of incantation scroll ashes and ashes of a very powerful evil witch, whom the founders of this hunter clan have taken care of years ago. You can never defeat us. No creation of the Devil can withstand us who fight for the righteousness of the human race."

            "If you think…this is the way of…fighting for humans' righteousness…" Raziel slowly tried to stand up. The leader tried to boot him back to the ground but was caught by Raziel's three-fingered claw. He gripped his foot so tight that the leader was screaming like hell. As Raziel stood up, he tugged at the leader's foot with such force that he actually ripped it off its socket. Needless to say, the leader felt more than just scorching pain.

            "If you think this is the way of fighting for humans' righteousness," Raziel repeated as he clenched his claws onto his chest and concentrated, "you are going to be so disappointed."

            So saying, he let out a loud roar as he propelled the bullets out of his body, hitting some of the hunters who were charging towards him. Raziel caught his breath and glared at the leader who was trying to crawl his way from the eyes of Raziel who were bent on killing. He wriggled away too late; Raziel grabbed his neck and glared venomously at the pathetic leader who was begging for his life.

            "Let me go! Let me go, you vampire! Please let me go, sir!!"

            "You're not as strong as you were before," Raziel's voice had a hint of mockery.

            "Please, I beg you, spare my life! Please!!"

            "Your life is not worth to be begged of."

            And for the first time in his life, Raziel started sucking the soul out of that man alive without the usual 'kill first, suck later' routine. The leader let out a bloodcurdling scream as his whitish soul was sucked out through his eyes and mouth. He began to vomit blood and more blood came out of his ears and nose as the soul was forced out of his body inch by inch by Raziel's great sucking motion. More hunters tried to charge towards the Soul Reaver to release and save their leader but somehow, their legs became weak and the fear of ending up the same way like their leader crossed through their minds. They could only fall on their knees and watch as their leader got closer and closer to death. Raziel was the centre of the occasion. He stood like a fearless being among the people, indestructible and full of power.

            It was like eternity when he finally had the leader's soul into his body. The leader's body shrank like a mummy and was a real frightful sight. Raziel threw him away like a piece of rubbish and glared at all the hunters that were on the floor, full of fear and terror over this vampire they have never encounter before in their days of services in the clan. Raziel materialized the sword from his palm and brandished it in front of their eyes. With a gleam in his eyes, another 'thunderstorm' broke, sending bodies all over the place, and this time, the Soul Reaver made sure that every last one of those hunters' blood stained his sword…

            When Raziel finally came back to his senses, the whole place was quiet. So quiet you could hear a sewing pin drop. He panted and surveyed the plains. No more incoming hunters. No more incoming dangers. Just bodies of everyone that had did Melissa and Judith wrong. Raziel finally noticed Melissa and rushed towards her, drawing the scarf across his face as he went to her. The children finally came out of their hiding place, with Kent carrying Judith's body in his arms.

            Raziel knelt beside Melissa, who was still struggled to breathe through her punctured throat. He laid her head on his lap and tried to block the bleeding hole on the hollow of her throat. She shifted her blank gaze towards Raziel and smiled.

            "Guess I…really took my force field…for granted…"

            "Don't speak. You need medical human help. I can't remove the foreign thing in your throat. I…" Raziel's words were stopped by Melissa's trembling hand.

            "Forget it…I'm dying anyway…"

            Raziel's eyes widened. She was dying—he could see it—but surprisingly, he didn't feel any happier than he should.

            "Looks like…you're gonna get my soul…after all…"

           "Don't say that, woman. You're not going to die. You are going to live. I have not killed you with my bare hands yet, you are not allowed to die!"

            "Then kill me now…"

            Raziel didn't want to admit it. He fought with the truth that was itching in his mouth and his pride, but finally he whispered painfully, "I cannot. I can't do it…"

            Melissa wasn't surprised. She smiled and touched his cold, clammy cheek and said, "I guess human life…has taken a…toll on you…"

            Raziel remained silent, but his heart was burning with sorrow and pain. He couldn't understand it. She was finally going to die. Her soul was finally going to be in him. Why was he not happy? Why couldn't he find the satisfaction of her death? Why was he feeling sorry for her and wanting her to live? Why? Why?

            "My soul is yours…" Melissa was closing to death now. Her life was beginning to slip. Raziel could feel it. "Promise me…you will keep…my soul in you…forever…"

            Raziel didn't reply. He didn't want to make that promise. He wanted Melissa to live. He didn't want her to die.

            "I…I love you…Raziel…"

            Love? That word suddenly clicked in him, the word he had long since forgotten ever since he became a vampire. Love? Is that what's all about? Is that the drive that made him hesitant to kill? Is that the drive that influenced him to save her every time she was in trouble? Was it because he…loved her? Was it because he actually fell…in love with her? When he turned to face her, she was no more. She had closed her eyes for eternity. Raziel's heart sank like a stone into the bottom of the ocean.

            Slowly, he saw Melissa's soul sitting up out of her body. She was a glowing entity, a beautiful angelic masterpiece of heaven and earth. She looked into Raziel's eyes and smiled. Her whole body was white, including her hair, but she was nowhere old. She was something so beautiful and precious that Raziel has never seen for a very, very long time. She outstretched her arms in an embrace. Raziel embraced her back and laid his forehead against hers. Melissa smiled some more and brought her lips close to his jawless mouth. Raziel lowered his scarf and closed his eyes, feeling her cotton-soft lips on his…

            When Raziel opened his eyes, he found himself kneeling on a tall cliff facing the sky with its unnatural colour. A murky river was miles below his feet and the outskirts of the valley was as sinister and as cold and dark as he recognized it. It was all too familiar for him. It was the Spectral Realm, the place he had called home ever since the Elder God gave him the Soul Reaver identity. He was finally home. Melissa's soul was really the key to his return to the Spectral Realm. 

            As he stared across the sinister valley before him from the cliff he was standing, he found no comfort. He wasn't happy at all that he had returned to the Spectral Realm. He wasn't glad that he was back to his routine of being his free-lance Soul Reaver and escaping from the Elder God and battling Kain, whom he was yet to come across. None of them did his aching heart any good than it should.

            "I love you, Raziel…"

            "Melissa…" Raziel sat abruptly onto the solid ground of the cliff and buried his face in his arms. It was a bitter feeling to come back. It was so bitter, it cut him like a knife.

            For the first time in centuries, Raziel cried…

A/N: Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo~~~!!! T_T I know it's a little OOC and a little sad, but that's how it goes~! See ya next time! *Sobs* Reviews plz!  


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